Multiple Oahu Interscholastic Association sources and Hawaii High School Athletic Association executive director Chris Chun confirmed late Monday night that the OIA will run its 2018 football season in three divisions instead of two and that the state football tournament will have two more OIA teams participating than a year ago.
The OIA’s move to three tiers had been anticipated since the fall of 2017, and now the league will determine a workable schedule for its new six-team Open Division that includes Campbell, Farrington, Kahuku, Kapolei, Mililani and Waianae.
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OIA BREAKDOWN
Open
>> Campbell
>> Farrington
>> Kahuku
>> Kapolei
>> Mililani
>> Waianae
Division I
>> Aiea
>> Castle
>> Kailua
>> Leilehua
>> Moanalua
>> Radford
>> Nanakuli
>> Waipahu
Division II
>> Kaimuki
>> Kaiser
>> Kalaheo
>> Kalani
>> McKinley
>> Pearl City
>> Roosevelt
>> Waialua
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The OIA sources also confirmed that the OIA will have eight teams each in Division I and II. In 2017, the OIA did not participate in state Division I and placed three teams in the state Open and one in state D-II. For 2018, the OIA will still have three teams (joining one ILH team) in the four-team state Open Division tournament.
Kapolei coach Darren Hernandez is happy to see the creation of the OIA Open Division.
“It will be more intriguing every week for the kids, the schools, the fans, for revenue,” he said. “I would like to see a five-team double round-robin. The more games the better.”
Details on scheduling are still being worked out for the OIA Open, and sources said the league’s D-I and D-II teams will play a seven-game round-robin.
The other two state tournament division formats will be finalized in July, when the Kauai Interscholastic Federation declares for either D-I or D-II. The two new slots for OIA teams at the state tournament will go into whichever division the KIF goes into, forming a six-team field.
Chun was delighted to hear of the OIA’s plans.
“I am happy that they are going to participate in all three state divisions,” he said. “They should be. We had the most competitive state tournament last year, and with two more OIA teams (instead of zero) in one of the divisions, it should make it even more exciting.”
The OIA’s new regular-season breakdown falls in line with the state format in a much cleaner way. It also is a way, OIA football coordinator Harold Tanaka has said in the past, to help the league with scheduling more competitive games each week and eliminate, as much as possible, the blowouts that have occurred with only two divisions.
